Anger mortal sin if not acted upon?

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Dourbest

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So I was messing around with a friend who acted foolishly and accidentally hit me hard in the head w something. I was in a lot of pain (near tears) and felt extremely angry to the point where I felt like just punching him. Obviously I didn’t, as that’s wrong and I walked out my anger. Did I mortally sin because I desired to hurt him sorta, cuz I wasn’t planning but on doing it it just sorta manifested into my mind after I started trying to figure out how I felt. But I knew it was wrong so I’m not sure.
 
it’s not a sin to feel emotions. What matters is what you choose to do.

You didn’t act on your anger. You didn’t try to act on it. You walked off your anger, by which I think you mean that you walked away from your friend and set yourself to stop being angry.
 
Resisting temptation is a virtue and is meritorious.

It is a biological response to feel a surge of aggressive energy after being hit. This is the flight-or-flight response, which prepares a person to fight or run away. There is no moral element here. It is 100% biological. A younger person will also have fewer filters, because the brain doesn’t stop developing until mid/late twenties and for men it can continue to develop into their 30s.

The moral element is how the person responds to whatever it is that they are feeling. You chose not to hit him back, so what you did was virtuous.
 
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It is not how you feel, it is what you do.
Not acting upon this anger is a way to grow in virtue.
 
Would highly doubt it.

It was after all a pretty normal human reaction. Hardly think a loving God would throw an otherwise good person in hell when not acting on a normal initial impulse.
 
It sounds like you worked through this incident in a mature fashion.

Your friend hit you by accident and it hurt.
Your first reflex was a rush of angry thoughts.
Then you decided to manage your anger by walking it out.
Then you acted on the decision to walk it out.
Then (apparently?) you weren’t angry anymore.

Unless you’re secretly plotting revenge that you haven’t told us, sounds like you did the right thing.
 
At what point is anger a grave sin? Physically assaulting someone or berating them to the point of emotional scars? Or is it more subtle?
 
So Im fine because even though on somebody level I desired to punch him I didn’t act on it (not on it at least in that way I sorta told my other friend I wanted to leave and walked away) and chose not to dwelll on this but just calmed down and later hugged and forgave him?
 
DisorientingSneeze said:
At what point is anger a grave sin? Physically assaulting someone or berating them to the point of emotional scars? Or is it more subtle?
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Clinging to your anger. Nursing it. Holding on to the grudge. Fantasizing revenge. Those are sins, and the longer you go on doing them the worse the sin.
Being angry is not a sin if your reaction is to let go of it, or at least try your best to let go.
 
If you were fooling around, it could just as easily have been you who accidently punched your friend. I am sure he is remorseful; and hopefully any pain from the punch has now gone. You gave him a hug, and the real test will be in the years to come, you will both be able to look back on what happened with no bad feelings.
 
Momentary emotions and thoughts are not sinful. We often can’t help them because they are triggered by a biological response.

If we choose to dwell on the bad thought and keep it in our mind and voluntarily think about it once the initial rush of emotion has passed, then we’re committing a sin.
 
I think it’s a fairly normal reaction to be angry after the shock of being beaned. If you got over it and didn’t act in it, you are fine
 
At the point that it is accompanied by grave malice. (Intent to do serious harm) Of course all the three requirements of a mortal sin have to be present as well.
 
What you did was the right thing to do, given what you have told us.

If you had punched him, that would have been the wrong thing to do.

We can’t always control the eruptions of our feelings; we can only control what we do about them.

You walked away and got over your anger, and forgave your friend. Excellent job of overcoming temptation 🎆 🎇

If you had punched him, or held onto your anger, that would have been giving in to temptation.
 
My priest recently touched upon the subject of anger and temptation.

To feel either anger or temptation is not a sin, unless we willfully act upon them in a sinful manner.

In fact, anger can be a good thing. Anger is a result of an injustice towards us. For example, someone may be angry at the number of abortions committed, this could lead them to becoming involved in pro-life organizations.
 
For anger to be mortally sinful, it has to be deliberate:

CCC 2302:
If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, "Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment."96
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It’s similar to committing adultery in one’s heart. Such thoughts are only sinful if deliberately consented to. The same is true for other sins committed in our thoughts.
 
Scripture says “Be angry and sin not”. The emotion of anger is not a sin, however, when we are emotional we can more easily give way to sin.
 
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